Hey Lee, I do use them when I am not going deep into the bamboo pole but they don't last very long either. Fatfreddies idea of using microplane might be the way forward but after reading some reviews I am not too sure about those either as they are expensive and I am not too sure about the quality too. I wonder how they actually make the filing surface on the tools used for filing really. It would be the best option for my tool. I will keep pondering I guess. Cheers